Tri-Service
Prince Harry Stranded As RFA Wave Knight Breaks Down
Prince Harry has been stranded during his West Indies tour when the Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship transporting him broke down.
The Prince was due to spend a few hours at an undisclosed location for lunch on a Caribbean island as part of a designated travel day during the 15-day tour.
However, his ship, the RFA Wave Knight, developed a problem on Sunday which meant it couldn’t leave its mooring at St Vincent. It was due to travel to Grenada.
RFA Wave Knight
Instead of stopping at an island out to sea the Prince was taken to a nearby St Vincent outcrop for lunch.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said: "Today, day eight of the tour, was a designated travel day. The journey from St Vincent and the Grenadines to Grenada was due to take six hours and the tour party planned to stop along the way for lunch.”
"Due to a technical problem, RFA Wave Knight was unable to leave St Vincent as planned. Prince Harry and the tour party remains in the country and went to a nearby island for a private afternoon ahead of week two.”
"Contingency plans are in place and there is no current expectation that the second half of the tour will be impacted by the technical problem with Wave Knight. We are looking forward to meeting the people of Grenada tomorrow."
Harry has stayed on board in the hope it will be fixed soon but if the problems persist then it’s expected the Prince will fly to Grenada instead.
A Royal Navy spokesman said:
"RFA Wave Knight experienced a minor technical issue. This has not caused delay to the royal tour, or affected the operational commitments of the ship."
The RFA Wave Knight is participating in counter narcotics and disaster relief operations in the Caribbean.
The Wave-class tanker, which is almost 200 metres in length, was built in Barrow-in-Furness and enetered service in 2003.
With a crew of 80 and a provision for 22 Royal Navy personnel, she has a top speed of 18 knots and a range of 10,000 nautical miles.
Among its armaments are two DS30B 30 mm cannons and two 7.62 mm Mk.44 Miniguns.
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